Stormy's Session

It's been a few weeks now, but I worked Stormy the crazy filly one afternoon last month I think. I spent 2 1/2 hours with her. We went through all the ground stuff; lunging, scary bag on a stick, rope tossed over her, etc. I was able to put a bridle on and off her doing it in steps. I did rope in the mouth instead of a bit and after that she took the bit easier. It took a while and lots of patient persistence, but I was able to get the bridle and bit on and off without unbuckling it and putting it on like a halter. I tacked her up and did scary stirrups and and everything else I could think of. She's not scared of any of that. She hates the bridle, but isn't actually scared of it. Nanci showed up, so I had her hold Stormy and I stood in the stirrups, laid on her back, then sat on her and had Nanci walk us about 6 steps. I called it good and got off and she didn't even spook about that. I untacked and brushed again and then brought out an extension cord and desensitized her to it. I used the plastic bag and made scary clipper noises and rubbed it all over her. Then I got the clippers and rubbed her shoulder with the, and trimmed her bridle path. I held them in front of her so she could see them in hopes of doing her muzzle and she reared and struck. Of course. When I got her calmed down I held up the clippers off and she reared and struck. After a couple times I caught what her "tells" were and started disciplining her at the first signs she was thinking about rearing/striking. It worked. I was able to get her to sniff the clippers. I felt harsh, but I'm NOT going to stand for being struck at. That is WAY too deadly.

A few days later Melissa took her to the stables and worked her in the round-pen and said she had no issues, so it must have made a difference. Monty hasn't done anything with her since and the session proved to me AGAIN that she is really to aggressive for me. I don't know how to handle it correctly and safely AND I don't want to die. Especially not by the hooves of that psycho horse. I've worked her several times, she has all the "scary stuff" down. She's NOT scared. She's just scared of PEOPLE and wants to kill them. I can't fix that, I'm not agile enough to dodge hooves nor strong enough to wrestle her around when she gets violent. I don't know any other way of handling something like that, so I'm obviously NOT the one who should be training her. Being nice and trying to do bonding things hasn't made her less violently aggressive. She needs a real trainer at this point. Hopefully by the fall Monty can afford that for her.